BlizzCon 2016 World of Warcraft: What’s Next Panel Transcript

Patch 7.2 New Raid Zone: Tomb of Sargeras

Hazzikostas: What will the patch of the Tomb of Sargeras be without the Tomb of Sargeras? So the next raid zone after the Nighthold raid will of course be the Tomb itself. It is a 9-Boss Raid. We will be descending into the depths of the Tomb of Sargeras — once the ancient holy Temple of Elune before it fell to the Legion’s corruption — where we will harness the power of the Pillars of Creation with the ultimate goal of sealing off the Legion Invasion of our world.

We scoured the four zones that we leveled up in to get those four Pillars, the Fifth Pillar (The Eye of Aman’Thul) awaits us in the Nighthold raid at the end of Suramar. Coming in the near future. But by the time we make it here, you will have all five of those in your possession; and our mission would be putting them to the purpose for which they were designed, for which they were meant.

Now the Tomb of Sargeras, as I meantioned, used to be the Temple of Elune and it offers a really cool opportunity for us to explore more than just the black and green exterior Legion facade that you see as we actually delve down into its depths.

On this slide here, we actually have a mix of a 2D and kinda side-cutout and top layout of the raid. This is actually one of the first steps in our internal process of making a new raid zone, or making a new dungeon for any 3D geometry we want to get a sense of the overall structure, the flow where the bosses are going to be located, and how it all fits together. I look forward to everyone doing like a CSI magic trying to triple-enhance our little text here.

The raid itself actually has four main sections, I would say. When you first enter, you are entering what we call a dark cathedral area. It’s the grand glory of Elune fallen into Legion corruption. It is a reflection very much of that exterior art style and just that massive entry hall that you enter into; and that’s where the Legion presence is most strong initially, but our objective is actually deep down below; and the Temple of Elune existed milennia ago before The Sundering, as a complement on the other side of the bridge across from Suramar; and The Sundering of course wrought terrible damage to the structure itself.

So as we descend, we actually are going to spend some time venturing out of the foundation into underground caverns where powerful minions of Queen Azshara await us: Naga and their allies. Through that section, we are to come back into a very low part of the Tomb that actually– in many ways escapes the Legion influence. It has been sealed away since the time of The Sundering, but darkness has been fostered here. Darkness that has been growing and overtaken these halls in the milennia since that time, and now is when we enter to discover that we need to go in there, and go through there to put the Pillars to use; and then finally, once we have explored all of those areas, we will unlock a way down into the deepest, lowest depths of the Tomb of Sargeras. Where Aegwynn once fought a battle against the Avatar of Sargeras, and we will have to see what happens there.

Let’s take a look at some of the foes that you will be fighting. First off, we have this guy. It’s a cross between an infernal and a pitlord. Plan is for him to actually come crashing through the side wall in that main cathedral entrance area. Assemble in front of you, and bar your path. We love to star raids off with large visually impressive foes — kinda going back to Marrowgar in Icecrown Citadel, and onward from there.

Deeper on the first floor, we have this fellow. A new member of the Legion’s army that we have yet to see. Kind of a melee variance of the Jailor.

As we go further into the Naga controlled areas, this powerful Naga brood will bar your path, as well as this Seawitch who commands a powerful Kraken beside her.

Now in those lowest, deepest recesses of the Tomb that I mentioned, there is the reason why the Tomb of Sargeras is called The Tomb of Sargeras. This fellow. This is the husk. This is the fallen Avatar of Sargeras that once contained the soul of the Dark Titan himself, that was vanquished by Aegwynn; but that dark power, a remnant of it still lingers within him. Within this massive construct. Within this terrible creature, and we will have to go through him in order to accomplish our final goal in the depths of the Tomb.

Also this guy. kil’jaeden himself awaits us. The left hand of Gul’dan, brother to Archimonde (who fell in the Hellfire Citadel), and the architect of the Legion’s latest invasion and their great plan against Azeroth. Kil’jaeden the Deceiver is the ultimate foe that stands at the end of the Tomb of Sargeras.

Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.

Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.

I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)

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